EXTENDED EPILOGUE
Cash
Seven years later
“You got it Maureen! Go! Go! Go!” I shout as our five-year-old carefully stands on her snowboard and begins sliding down the bunny hill with a hand outstretched on either side for balance.
“You’re next, Mikey! Go!”
Mikey stands and slowly follows his sister down the hill. It’s not much of a hill, but that’s the idea. We just want to get the kids acclimated to the snow and equally as important to instill the values of Mikey looking out for his little sister. From behind her he can keep a watch over her and make sure she’s okay. If she falls he’s right there to pick her up.
Mary’s off to the side waving with one mitten covered hand and holding the camera with the other. I can’t wait to see the pictures and to embarrass the kids when they start dating in ten years…or thirty.
It’s not that I don’t want them to grow up and find true love of their own, it’s just that I want them to be around forever.
Mikey and Maureen bring us so much joy as do Michelle and Mark. The five M’s, including Mary, and then me.
I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect family and it all starts with the perfect wife. Her.
And a huge added bonus has been her ability to help not only with the family, but in the business world as well. My clients love her and she’s really taken to portfolio management and the strategies used to maximize everything available. I don’t think that it hurts one bit that she’s a woman and is always thinking about her family. It gives her an interesting perspective on estate planning that I think men wouldn’t naturally gravitate toward or consider.
But it doesn’t surprise me that she’s always coming up with new ways to surprise me. Whether it’s little notes she puts in my suit pocket telling me how much she loves me, or always remembering the kids favorite things to pack in their lunchboxes she’s always giving us little gifts and things that we “accidentally” stumble upon. But there is no accident. None at all.
She’s always thinking a step ahead, even me. And a great example of that was when she suggest we use the upstairs bedroom as an at home office.
I had always preferred separating business and family life, but then again I never really had a family life…and maybe that’s the reason why. Sure the number one reason why was because I hadn't met her yet, but also I was just to focused on making another billion dollars. I mean once you have two billion do you really need three?
What’s the point after all? The point of all that money is to improve your loved ones lives and futures and then if there’s anything left over to improve your own. Well, we had plenty to go around and being around my family taught me to take a deep breath and stop trying to stack my money to the sky.
I’d already found heaven when I found them. There’s nowhere higher to go.
And that’s exactly how I felt, especially in moments like these.
“You got it, guys!”
Mikey catches up to Maureen and carefully puts his hand on her shoulder. I’m surprised he’s able to guide his board so well and also not to knock her over, but somehow they work together. They’re just like their mother and I…a perfect team.
But then the best moment of all.
Mikey carefully removes his hand making sure not to disturb her balance and offers it to Maureen. She takes it and they slowly slide down the last twenty yards of the run together.
I look for Mary to see if she got it but she’s already gone. She was a step ahead of me again. She raced out in front of the kids and knowing her she’s switched from photo mode to video mode. Like I always say…a step ahead of me.
But fortunately for both of us everything we do since that day at the airport when I proposed we’ve done side-by-side. We have common interests and the most common and important of goals…our kids.
When we met I was thirty-seven and she was twenty-two. Now I’m forty-four and she’s twenty-nine.
Next year will be a milestone birthday for her and even though I know how much women want to stay twenty-nine forever, I have to do something super special. So far I’m thinking about taking her on an island holiday and then surprising her at the end and telling her the island is actually hers. Yes, a lot of countries allow you to buy islands actually, and if you buy it you can call it whatever you want, right?
And knowing her it would go into the kids estate so one day that island will be theirs. A place special to our family that may have never even been walked on by anyone outside our very own family. Just a small place to get away from it all and reconnect with what’s most important in this world…each other.
That’s the way it is and that’s the way it always will be.
I take off running down the hill and see a snowball coming my way. I could block it, but I don’t. I let it hit me right in the chest and do my best cowboy western fake dying routine.
My kids are laughing so hard they lose their balance and fall on their butts.
And that’s what life’s all about. Enjoying these moments with my kids, even at my own expense. And when it’s all over remind them that no matter how many times we fall down, we always get up.
And we help each other up when we do. One for all and all for one.
That’s how us Guy’s do it. Forever.